Emulsified paraffin-wax and process of making same.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE W. MILES, OF BELMONT, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO BOSS CHEMICAL COMPANY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

EMULSIFIED PARAFFIN-WAX AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. MILES, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Belmont, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Emulsified Paraffin- 21x and Processes of Making Same, of which the following is a specification.

My invention consists in a method of emulsifying paraffin wax, or Wax-mixtures in which paraffin wax is an ingredient, and

, in the product of the method.

Emulsion of wax, such as carnauba wax, for example, have been made for various purposes, by boiling the wax in water with soap, but so far as I am aware, paraffin wax has resisted attempts at emulsification by the methods to which other waxes have re sponded.

The method which I have invented involves the production, first, of a thick emulsion basis, by heating and beating paraffin wax with a soluble soap and a reduced quantity of water. Within rather narrow limits the proportion of water will vary. Broadly speaking, the quantity is that which will suffice to make the soap workable as a viscous paste.

Unlike other waxes or waxy materials, parafiin wax does not emulsify in soap solutions of the usual degree of dilution. I have discovered that with any ordinary soap, there is a critical water-proportion, much less than that employed for wax emulsification, which determines the emulsification of paraffin wax. This proportion is in all the specific instanceswhich I have put to test, so small that, while a soap maybe worked into a paste with it, it is difiicult to effect a thorough mixtureof "parafiin wax; the wax may be incorporated with such a thick paste by gradual introduction in small quantities at a time.

Since the critical water-proportion has to be empirically determined for any given soap, the following method is recommended: First make a thin soap paste or soap solution, with water in excess of the critical proportion required for paraffin wax emulsification; then mix this solution or paste with the wax, and evaporate the excess water by heat, meanwhile beating the mixture. Until the critical water proportion is reached, the wax will not emulsify, but after Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 18, 1916.

Application filed February 4, 1915. Serial No. 6,173.

the requisite reduction of the water, the paraflin wax goes into emulsion. For example, take, of paraffin wax ninety-five parts, and of commercially dry soda-tallow soap (containing about 20% water) five parts, by weight. Make a paste with this soap and four or five times its weight, of water. Then melt the paraffin wax and stir in the soap paste, heat approximately to the boiling point of water and continue the heat, stirring or beating meanwhile, until, by evaporation, the water is reduced to the critical 'roportion. Then the parafiin wax emulsies. In this specific instance the critical water proportion is about equal in weight to three times the dry weight of the soap. If a soda-tallow soap be mixed and worked with three times its own weight of water, the paste formed is thick and viscous. The ratio of soda-tallow soap to parafiin wax may be greater than five per cent. of the aggregate, and with variations in the soap proportion the critical water-proportion will also vary to some extent. The exact limit of this critical proportion cannot be determined, but, whatever the soap used, the critical proportion of water, empirically ascertained in the manner above explained, will be such that if mixed with the soap alone, it will form a thick viscous paste. In the same manner mixtures of waxes or wax-like materials in which paraffin wax is an ingredient, can be emulsified.

The emulsion formed as above described is quite thick, and may advantageously be extended by the addition of more water. The originally formed paraflin wax emulsion may therefore be regarded as an emulsion basis from which extended emulsion can be made to suit miscellaneous purposes.

I claim:

1. The method of emulsifying parafi'ln wax, which consists in heating the wax with a soap and sufficient water to produce a viscous paste with the quantity of soap em ployed.

2. The method of emulsifying paraflin wax, which consists in heating the wax with a soap and sufficient water to produce a viscous soap paste with the quantity of soap employed, and after the emulsion is thus formed, extending it by the addition of water.

3. The method of emulsifying paraflin wax, which consists in heating the wax with g msme a soap and a, quantity'of water initially in eient to produce a viscous paste with the 10 excess of that which effectuates the 'emulsiquantity of soap used. fication of the perafin wax, and. evaporetin Signed by me at Boston, Massachusettg the excess of water until the critical emulsithis thirtieth day of January 1915.

5 fication proportion thereof is reached.

4. A paraffin wax emulsion consisting of GEORGE MILES perafiin wax, water, and seep. Witnesses: 5. A perafin wax emulsion composed of JOSEPHINE H. RYAN,

the wax, s soap, and. water in quantity sufii-i RICHARD .W. HALL. 

